As chief program and impact officer at Sojourners, I lead the strategy and execution of the organization’s mobilizing and advocacy programs, ensuring our work advances justice through a faith-rooted lens. My focus includes program development, systems creation, communications, and fostering partnerships that strengthen Sojourners’ role as a leader in progressing justice.
With nearly two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, organizing, and policy, I have dedicated my career to advancing equity and systemic change. Before joining Sojourners, I led and consulted for organizations such as The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, Equal Justice USA, and the Black Innovation Alliance; I also served in public policy roles at the local level.
A writer and speaker, my reflections on healing, masculinity, and justice have been featured widely, including “America’s Gun Violence Problem Is a Symptom of Toxic Masculinity” (Them). I studied urban policy at The New School’s Milano School and history at Rutgers University. I am a single Black queer father, a certified trauma-informed leadership coach, and a joyful believer in liberation through love, structure, and storytelling.
I grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and attend Bethany Baptist Church, an experience that deeply informs my work in abolition, education, food security, economic equity, and queer justice. My approach is always rooted in creating sustainable systems for impact and I lead with joy, strategy, and a commitment to building transformative change.
For fun, I enjoy the outdoors, food, writing, and exploring art and culture in the greater D.C. area.
Speaking Topics
- The Manosphere & Masculinity: Faith, Gender, and Healing Justice
- Movement Building, Faith-Based Organizing
- Food Insecurity and Black Food Sovereignty
- Storytelling and Developing Political Imagination
- Trauma-Informed Leadership and Movement Sustainability
Speaking Format
- Keynotes
- Workshops & Trainings
- Panel Discussions
- Fireside Chats
- Facilitated Dialogues & Retreats
Languages
- English
Past Notable Events
- Malcolm X at Barnard 1965/2015, Columbia University – Speaker
- White Faces, Black Lives, Drug Policy Alliance – Speaker
- Revolutionary Love Conference: Confronting Opponents? Middle Church – Speaker
- Liberation & the Legacy of Malcolm X: Policing, Mass Incarceration, and Justice in the 21st Century, Fordham University + The Shabazz Center– Convener & Speaker
Posts By This Author
Queer Folk Have a Faith that the Church Should Admire
Stonewall is remembered for being the site of a riot. What I remember about that community is care.
By the time the New York Police Department entered the Stonewall Inn in lower Manhattan on June 28, 1969, a community already existed. The rebellion became famous because people fought back, but communities are not built in a single night. The Black and brown queer folk, transgender women, drag queens, sex workers, and young people who gathered at Stonewall had already spent years creating ways to survive. They had learned how to care for one another when families and churches would not and when the police attacked them. Stonewall was not the beginning of their steadfastness. It was the moment the rest of the world was finally forced to see it.
I have been thinking about what the church still has not learned from that historic moment. The church I am addressing here is not a monolith. I understand there are Christians for whom this entire conversation stops at the mention of the LGBTQ+ acronym. I am not writing for them today. I am writing for the rest of us. I am writing for people like me, who are resisting inequitable systems and imagining what liberation can look like for all that God has created.
Trump Defectors Are on the Rise. Do We Welcome Them?
There are moments when a system fails so completely that it reveals its design. For me, that moment was in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. I watched from Newark as floodwaters submerged New Orleans, Black families were stranded on rooftops and packed into the Superdome while the state and national media moved with a deadly indifference. As a young adult, I learned something important: Systems don’t collapse; they are disinvested in and allowed to fail when people are deemed expendable.